Getting Started to be Prepared

[billm75]

From what I've read on this forum and in other places around the 'net, the trick to being prepared is to get started preparing. And I've also learned, it's not just about stockpiling supplies and food, but learning new skills, well OLD skills I guess, so that if the occasion does arise, you can sustain yourself and your family.

What I've been doing for the past couple of years is learning to grow food on my own. I must admit, the first couple of tries have been hit or miss. I can grow cu***bers and tomatoes like a champ. but other veggies, not so much. Peppers still stump me, and I haven't tried any tubers yet.

I do, however, have a plan. Each spring, I'm trying two new vegetables, along with what already works and those things that don't work. So say I'm growing cu***bers, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, spinach this year. I KNOW I have trouble with peppers. So all of that's staying, and this season coming up, I'll be adding carrots, onions and radishes. If they work out without too much trouble, hopefully I can do ALL of the above, and add zucchini, melons, etc next season.

I don't sample my soil, I don't buy specialized products (other than my starter soil) and I'm trying to learn to grow what I can with what I have already on my little garden plot.

I've also been learning to make fires. Believe it or not, in 5 years with a fireplace, this is the first year I've been able to successfully build a WOOD fire in it. In the past, I'd try with wood and then give up out of frustration and go with the Duraflame logs. Now I've got it figured out and it works great. 5 hours of fire from one armload of wood, and a few vaseline cotton balls.

I also try to build things when I need them. I don't rely on what I can buy at the home store, I try to craft things out of what I have available. Other than using power tools, I am confident I can build just about anything I need now. I do use hand tools quite a bit, just to stay in practice, and I'm not about to win any craftsmanship awards when I do, but I know the principles involved and the work required.

I'm always looking to learn more and more. I guess I should add in that I'm an amateur BBQ cook. For the last 12 years, I've crafted some of the finest BBQ foods without any fancy cookers or supplies. Everything I do in the kitchen or on the grill and smoker, has been done simply. I'm actually trying to grow some of my own spices and learn to dry and preserve them.

Next up is butchering. I want to learn to butcher my own meats. I know that's going to be a challenge, once I'm able to find someone to teach me, but I'm going to do it until I have a full understanding. I may start with chickens and other birds, and move up to deer and cows later. But the idea is that I'm learning the skills as I can, and I think that's the main thing people need to realize when becoming self sufficient. If there's a skill you don't understand, take the bull by the horns, have patience and learn it. If the day does come that the SHTF, you wont' find too many folks willing to take the time and teach you these things.

Thanks to forums like this one, I am able to plot my course and build my syllabus in the school of life and preparedness.

[610Alpha]

Sounds like you have a handle on things :)

[1Admin]

What did you mean on the "I don't sample my soil"? I didn't understand that part.

On the problems getting a fire started in the fireplace, a big problem is wood that is truly not ready to burn. People generally toss a couple sticks together in a pile outside, leave them uncovered most of the time and vulnerable to rain and then later try to burn them. It doesn't work out too well.

A firePLACE pulls different than a wood stove also. On our wood stove we can leave the bottom clean out door open for a little while after starting a fire and it pulls more air into the fire. This acts like a bellows or air pump in a blacksmith's forge, forcing oxygen into the fire.

[Klayton]

AWESOME! I think you are doing GREAT MAN!!

As for the gardening, "sample my soil", I assume means having it tested. This is kind of important step, ESPECIALLY if you are having problems going specific things. All items grown have their own pH preference. Example blueberries like a pH that would not allow some vegetables to grow. So, have your soil checked. Its usually around $10 a sample, and IMHO is the best $10 a gardner with growing problems can spend.

Your fireplace, your decision, but may I suggest cut back on the vaseline cotton balls? I am sure you know these are awesome firestarters, but vaseline IS a petroleum based product, and not something you should be burning on a regular basis in a home fireplace. Two things to remember about firewood: moisture level of your firewood is KING, and proper kindling is Queen. Most people store firewood out of doors, obviously, it should be covered (or protected someway from rain). We use large rubbermaid tubs, three of them, for kindling. My kids love picking up twigs once and awhile and sorting them by size into the kindling boxes. (thumb size, pencil size, itsy bitsy size) You can see some nice diagrams/illustrations on how to properly stage kindling and firewood on the web. :)

Kudos on your hand tools. Not enough people understand the importance of a pair of pliers or crescent wrench, until they need one.

On butchering, again this depends on what part of the woods you are from (the way my Daddy says it, hehe). Modern butchering usually refers to animal carcasses that are already cleaned and processed (gutted and hided/defeathered). But I am thinking you mean the old definition of butcher, the one that did it all, so to speak. Youtube is your gold mine on how to gut and hide an animal carcass. Chickens, heck they even sell a defeathering tub most people can afford (looks like an old fashioned washing machine with rubbre fingers inside it). As far as the actually cutting of the meats to retail cuts, well this is what I instructed for 5 years of my military service. It is all about making the cut in the proper location. To do this, google IMPS 100 (for beef) IMPS 200 (for Lamb & Mutton) IMPS 300 (for Veal & Calf) IMPS 400 (for Pork) IMPS 500 (for cured & smoked Pork) IMPS 600 (for cured, smoked, & dried Beef) IMPS 700 (for Variety Meats & By-Products) IMPS 800 (for Sausage) and finally IMPS 11 (for Goats). :
) It is a daunting task at first, but once you do it a few times, you will be like, WOW it is really that easy to process a heifer?

But I think YOU are way ahead of most people, so GREAT JOB MAN!!

[billm75]

With the soil sampling, I did mean that I don't test it for ph levels, etc. I may HAVE to this year, but so far I haven't and I've really only had trouble with one or two things. I'm hard headed. LOL

For fire starting in the fireplace, I started building the fire "upside down" with the kindling on top and the big logs on the bottom, and it's been working like a champ. I use the cotton balls, maybe 2 or 3 at a time to get the kindling going and I do burn a chimney sweeper log at least twice a month to keep down on buildup. The wood I have is kiln dried and hasn't been stored outdoors, so I know the problem had to be in the technique, not the material.

[Klayton]

Oh, forgot one thing some gardners forget, you have to rotate your crops. Unless you plan on using extra fertilizer and soil ammendments. Example if you grow corn in the same field year after year, you will soon see the nitrogen level of that soil so poor, no corn will grow...

[Klayton]

OH, and one more thing you might invest in for kindlin': http://gadgets.boingboing.net/logroller.jpg

[billm75]

I learned about crop rotation after my second year of gardening. So I do have that covered.

The log roller thing is nice, but I don't subscribe to our newspaper. I refuse to pay as much as they're asking for basically 10 pages. LOL I keep my hardwood scraps from other projects and Lowe's is sellling small bundles of hardwood kindling for $4 right now. I plan to chop down some of the firewood into sticks for kindling use soon. Waiting on a fresh delivery of logs. Luckily in my area, lots of folks have oak and hickory firewood for sale, at a fair price I might add, all I have to do is call and have $50 cash in hand. That sure beats firing up the chainsaw and splitting wood for days at a time. ;)

[Klayton]

outside the box,,, outside the box,,, I am sure you know those pesky "free" home listings rags? They conveniently roll up quite well, just like a paid for newspaper... :)

[biathlon]

The first fact that you are thinking about preparing puts you in a small fraction of the top %1 of the US population.
I'm really spoiled firewise as we have so much beetle killed lodgepole pine up here.
Being primarily vegetarian, I have only a modest curiosity about butchering. There are so many fish up here and they are so easy to get and so good for you large game makes little sense for me.
Gardening? Aaaahhhh. One of my favorite passtimes. I help my ladyfriend with perrennials, flowers and a small "spaghetti sauce" herb garden at her townhouse. The first year we grew monster sunflowers with lots of miracle grow as we both have really demanding full time jobs and not a lot of time. This helped the local bee population out a lot and the enormous plants locked up lots of carbon to compost and put back into the soil. First coupla years try to put as much plant matter back into the soil as you can. You're building a kind of bank so to say. Most of my efforts this spring will be with perrennial crops like sage, chives, berries, things that require not nearly as much time as annuals.

My more focused efforts are to care for and propagate what's already up in my above 10,000 foot locale. Lots and lots of herbs, 6 kinds of berries and several root crops. I have a 16 pound prybar I use to get rid of rocks and a 5 gallon bucket to gather deer, elk and moose poop for my "wildcraft" compost piles. We have acres and acres of small but very tasty strawberries, several kinds of wild grains I have not identified yet but the bluegrouse, ducks and snowshoe hares love them. The deer and elk are very fond of the different clovers that grow up here so I take real good care of it and everything gets lots of miracle grow.

Gardening is mostly attitude and patience. We'll all have to post some photos this spring.

[KirkMcquest]

Sounds great so far. I would like to add that having someone to teach you how to butcher is not really necessary IMO. A few years ago I took up hunting, watched a few youtube vids about skinning, gutting and butchering then rolled up my sleeves and 'had at it' so to speak. The very first year I shot a deer and was able to skin, gut, and butcher it fairly well with no help from anyone. I had to think my way through it and made a couple of small errors but basically it all came out fine. The next time I did it flawlessly. It's really not rocket scientry, and IMO people like to make more of most things than there really is ( just human nature, we all like to sound smart and make what we do seem more complicated than it is).

[Matt In Oklahoma]

The greatb thing about butchering is there are actually lines to carve on between the muscles and if you do mess up oh well it's hamburger and stew meat!

[billm75]

outside the box,,, outside the box,,, I am sure you know those pesky "free" home listings rags? They conveniently roll up quite well, just like a paid for newspaper... :)

What a good idea. I'll have to start clearing out the boxes in town. ;) I love the way you think.

For the gardening thing, I'm building raised beds this season, and starting "fresh" so to speak. I have the compost pile started, so hopefully by next season I'll have my own home brew for fertilizer.

Butchering, while not tops on my list, is something I want to do just because I want to be able to say I did as much of the work with my meal as possible. I don't have the land to raise animals, but I've seen a few farmers nearby offering to raise them on my behalf as long as I purchase the animal and pay for the upkeep. Might be something to look into long term. I'd love, and I mean LOVE, to have a freezer full of beef that I knew exactly where it came from, how it was raised and that I got to butcher and pack it.

Now....to get the wife to eat rabbit. THOSE, I can raise. LOL

[Klayton]

@billm75

if you want her to eat rabbit, I have found the easiest way is for YOU to make some homemade stew and after she eats it and says how great it is, let her know you used rabbit instead of beef ;)

[Monel]

Rabbits are good! There is a surprising amount of meat on a domestic rabbit. I like it slow smoked. I have to say tho, it made me feel bad holding the bunnies by the scruff of the neck and clubbing them with a claw hammer handle. Cold.....